Kaitlyn Jaffe

Kaitlyn Jaffe

Assistant Professor of Community Health Education

Substance use; health equity; harm reduction; research ethics; social determinants of health

Location

Arnold House

715 North Pleasant Street
Amherst, MA 01003
United States

I am a medical sociologist who studies substance use, the social determinants of health, and social and ethical issues in medical research. Using qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods, my current projects focus on: 1) challenges facing research staff in clinical substance use research; and 2) equitable access to healthcare, treatment, and harm reduction services among people who use drugs.

Education

  • Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Michigan
  • PhD, University of British Columbia
  • MA, University of Chicago
  • BA, University of South Carolina

Key Publications

Jaffe, K., Blawatt, S., Lehal, E., Lock, K., Easterbrook, A., MacDonald, S., Harrison, S., Lajeunesse, J., Byres, D., Schechter, M., Oviedo-Joekes, E. (2023). “As long as that place stays open, I’ll stay alive”: Accessing injectable opioid agonist treatment during dual public health crises. Harm Reduction Journal, 20(51).

Jaffe, K., Nosova, E., Maher, L., Hayashi, K., Milloy, M-J, Richardson, L. (2021). Income generation and the patterning of substance use: a gender-based analysis. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 226.

Jaffe, K., Korthuis, T., Richardson, L. (2021). “This could be my last chance”: Therapeutic optimism in a randomized controlled trial for substance use disorders. Sociology of Health and Illness, 43(5): 1286-1300.

Jaffe, K., Korthuis, T., Richardson, L. (2021). Experimental (re)structuring: The clinical trial as turning point among medical research participants. Qualitative Health Research, 31(8): 1504-1517.

Jaffe, K., Nosova, E., DeBeck, K., Hayashi, K., Milloy, M-J, Richardson, L. (2021). Trust in research physicians as a key dimension of randomized controlled trial participation in clinical addictions research. Substance Abuse, 42(4): 927-934.